Bred for the Bullet - Captive Lions

The “King of Beasts” once roamed over most parts of the world including Africa, North America and Eurasia. Today, however, they are restricted to the savanna, open expanses, and grassy plains of Africa, and to a small area of western India. There are about 20,000 lions in the wild today. A hundred years ago, that figure was around 200,000. Few animal species have suffered such a catastrophic decline in population.

So what is 'Trophy Hunting"?

Trophy Hunting originated back in the 1800’s when hunters began to kill animals for specific body parts - often the head and pelt but made no use of the rest of the animal.Today, Trophy hunting is big business. Trophy Hunting is the tracking and shooting of a selected animal – usually, big game such as rhinos, elephants, lions, pumas and bears. Although this can be done legally, under official government licences, it is always done for pleasure.

Lion cub ‘petting’ - and why it is wrong

So you want to ‘pet’ a lion cub - and post your picture on social media? Many people have done this before they realised they have made a big mistake! Cub 'petting' may appear harmless’ - but please, take a minute to think it through - Why is the cub at the ‘petting area’ and not with its mother? Is it still being fed milk?if you ask - expect to be told the cub is an orphan and being hand raised to ‘save it’ - That almost certainly won’t be true - Lion breeders remove cubs from their Mum’s at less than an hour old. Mum is probably someone else on the breeder's farm being mated for the next litter of cubs to sustain the business.

Many people stumble into the dark and murky world of lion breeding through a love of animals! It’s not easy to pick your way through the lies and myths that the lion breeders use to ‘cover-up’ their immoral business.

So what is canned Hunting?

The term "canned hunting" stems from a 1997 edition of the BBC’s "The Cook Report”. The programme featured an undercover expose of Sandy McDonald. McDonald claimed he arranged hunting trips for wealthy clients to shoot a real lion - all be it drugged and in a small enclosure. He claimed to have arranged such ‘hunts’ on many occasions. Canned hunts are perceived by most people as being lion hunts - but that really isn’t true. Lions are certainly hunted in this way, particularly in South Africa, but many other animals are also hunted in confined conditions in a number of countries around the world.

The Lion Bone Trade - A Roaring success?

China's State Council introduced a ban on the use of Tiger bones in traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in May 1993 under intense pressure, with the Clinton administration in the US and Cites separately threatening trade sanctions.Late in 2009, a newspaper article appeared in South Africa called "Anger over lion bones sales”. It highlighted the existence of a little-known trade in African lion bones that were being used as a substitute for tiger bones in Traditional medicine.

Trophy Hunting and why it can never be acceptable

”It goes without saying that the import of animal body parts as trophies should be banned outright by the British Government. I'm really shocked that they haven't already done it, in truth, the whole world should do it.” Dr. Brian May, Founder of Save Me Trust.

The most extreme version of trophy hunting is “Canned Hunting”. The animals which are born in captivity are taken away from their mothers within hours of being born so they can be used in petting zoos. When they become of age, they then spend the rest of their life in caged compounds waiting to be released into a larger compound for the so

I shared the outrage of many of my constituents when earlier in the summer, Cecil the Lion was killed by a “trophy hunter”. I am grateful to those who contacted me then, and indeed since, asking me to support legislation to ban the import of hunted remains such as skin, skulls and teeth.

Cecil’s Legacy is Cecil’s Law

The killing of Cecil the Lion lured from his home in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park by American trophy hunter Walter Palmer in July this year, shocked and outraged people around the world. Cecil was a popular figure within the park, head of his own pride and the subject of a research project by Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation

We would like to see Cecil's Law prevent the import of any trophy into the UK - it would stop hunters importing trophies back to the UK. We want to introduce legislation that would make animal heads, skins, claws and teeth effectively contraband. In the outrage that followed the illegal slaughter of Cecil, we found out that Britain has allowed the importation of lion trophies with the correct paperwork.

After the senseless vanity killing of Cecil's son Xanda, just two years after Cecil's death, we must have a new law. That law is Cecil's Law. Cecil’s Law will stop hunters importing their gruesome trophies back to Britain. We are calling on

Today, checking on the situation regarding the Minnesota dentist who killed Cecil the lion, I discovered that a rival male has killed one of Cecil’s cubs who were abandoned by Cecil’s brother, Jericho. Almost certainly the other cubs will be killed as well. This is what lions do

Blood Lions follows acclaimed environmental journalist and safari operator Ian Michler, along with Rick Swazey - an American hunter - on their journey to uncover the realities about the multi-million dollar predator breeding and canned lion hunting industries in South Africa. It's immoral, unethical, against the animals welfare and has no place in this century.

Trophy hunting: who benefits? Trophy hunting only benefits the fat cat hunting operators. On September 2nd, Melissa Simpson (Director of Science-Based Wildlife Conservation at the Safari Club International) placed an Opinion Piece in the National Geographic Daily News entitled “African Lions Should Not be Listed as Endangered". "Unless this continues, lions will go extinct".